


Any Given Sunday

by DeadStar



Category: The Hurt Locker (2008)
Genre: American Soldiers, Angst and Humor, British Military, Canon-Typical Violence, Explosions, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, F/M, Fear, Helmand Province, Male-Female Friendship, Military, Minor Character Death, Romance, Swearing, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2017-12-12 15:25:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadStar/pseuds/DeadStar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>William James re-enlists and needs to feel the urgent rush of adrenaline that only war can bring but James has changed. His wife has divorced him, tired of knowing that he will never settle down in civilian life, concerned their son will never have a father figure in his life and she herself has moved on. James goes back to the one place that feels more like family, the one place he feels alive and the one place where he meets HER for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. CAMP HELL

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Hurt Locker, its characters or background story, Im just borrowing them for this story of mine. William James returns to Afghanistan minus Sanford and Eldridge, gets given the run of a new team of newbies and tries to come to terms with the fact that he is a single man with no regrets of the past. All other characters are of my own creation.
> 
> This ongoing story marks the first published story I have written in over 6 years so please go easy on me! Comments most appreciated and any mistakes spelling or otherwise are of my own, this work has not seen a Beta.

It was hotter than fuck that much was apparent, the midday sun could peak at a ridiculous 44 degrees in the shade and the sandy and desert environment had some of the biggest fucking spiders she had ever seen, practically dinosaur sized if rumours were to be believed and if she hadn’t seen them for herself she would of laughed and said that the sun was making them all high on ultraviolet radiation. But she had seen them on several occasions and they were the biggest, baddest, ugliest motherfuckers ever witnessed to go ninja style across the soft almost white pearlescent sands without making so much of a sound.  
  
There had been more than one occassion that she had seen grown assed men jump up on bunks when witnessing one of these fuckers come crawling out from under bunks, turning some of the most die hard Marines into wet girls with their pointing and elevated cries of ‘kill that bastard’. You could almost guarantee that someone, somewhere would pull out his M16 and blast the arachnid to kingdom come. That was the thing with US Marines, if it moves then you blow the fucker up no questions asked whether it be eight legged dinosaurs or Terry Taliban, it didn’t really matter.  
  
Alex Riley stepped out into the baking heat and slid on her British Military issued sunglasses, they did their best to cut the amount of UV and reflection that the suns rays would lash down upon the troops but every now and then she found herself squinting whilst still wearing them. The climate in this region was just ridiculous, she was used to rainy days and the cold, she moaned about the lack of a summer back in London where that time of the year was always delicate, if the sun did actually show its face then people in their droves would come out in their tees and shorts wearing flip flops and sunglasses when in actuality the outside temperature would probably shrink the balls on a brass monkey.  
  
Now she wished she was back in that cold assed weather soaking up the never ending rain and bitching about the wind chill factor instead of the oven she now found herself in, she felt sure that this amount of exposure was bound to rot the brain cells over the period of six months. With hands on her hips, she cracked her back and looked up to the clear skies, everything seemed almost too quiet as she finally brought her head back down to eye level and surveyed the scene in front of her, another truckload of newbies and rocketeers.

"Just brilliant" she muttered under her breath, the camp was beginning to get a little too crowded.

Alex had been assigned to a US Marine unit, allies helping out allies, as a representative of the British Army Intelligence Unit and at first it had been difficult to gel with her fellow American comrades, some of them were well known and outspoken about how women shouldn’t be allowed on the front line whilst some were more easier going. It was a personal battle fought and won and she had proved herself in the heat of combat, the British would never send someone in that was incapable of doing the job, incapable of defending a fellow comrade and that of Queen and country.  
  
No, she had proven herself on more than one occassion so in her mind, there was nothing more she would do in order to keep those who felt her presence ruined the camaraderie of the team in check. If they didn’t like her, fuck them, didn’t mean she wasnt not going to defend any of them should the shit hit the fan which it invariably did on many an occassion but she did her job and she did it brilliantly. Scratching the back of her neck, she finally looked down at the time piece on her wrist and clocked the hands on the watch face, almost two in the afternoon she noted as a third troop truck pulled up ahead and a load of new faces began to march out.

"I bet half of them end up running home to Mommy" a voice crackled over to her right, a passing PFC carrying his wash kit shook his head, their uniforms so clean and tidy, every crease ironed just perfectly, nothing bent out of shape just yet.

"Like you did huh Nate?" another voice quickly replied dropping into place beside the first Marine, his softer than that of his comrades.

"Screw you man, I am the epitome of hardassedness" he jabbed a finger at his friend.

"Hardassedness? Is that even a word? Did you just make that up? And epitome?" PFC Nate Janssen furrowed his brow at Adam Benetti and laughed.

"I am a cultured mofo today, you should try it, ladies dig it" Adam grinned.

"No we don't" Alex called out to him and watched as he feigned a mock salute in her direction.

"That's cause you're wired different Boss" Nate replied, always the joker.

"Not really, it's because the women you go after are thicker than two short planks" she countered.

"Aww Sarge, you cut me deep, real deep" Nate placed a hand over his heart, walking backwards as he did so.

Riley rolled her eyes at the two men watching as they departed the scene making their way to the male washrooms, the first thing she had learned when she had arrived at Hell was that PFC Nathan 'Nate' Janssen was the camps whore, he even admitted it himself. The second thing she learnt was never, ever, under any circumstances allow afore mentioned man to buy you a drink whether it be a glass of water or a shot of Tequila at the makeshift bar.

"Welcome to Camp Hell boys and girls" she said to herself as she looked out on the sea of shiny new uniforms.


	2. The Trenches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, no Beta and, dont sue me as Im penniless and do this for fun!

Camp Hell as it was so lovingly called was the last drop off for most soldiers both American and British, always something somewhere happening in and around the camp mostly mortar attacks and the locals taking pot shots when they thought nobody was looking. Still, it was home away from home for those staying there, Camp Hell was not a choice, no, it was a calling for some, those that in the minority that actually wanted back to Hell while everybody else just prayed they never got that order and wished for somewhere less active.

Not many female combatants made it this far, there were about fifteen all told in an all male population of around two hundred. Most of those fell under the medical flag, she knew of one in the Quarter Master’s tent and two in the motor pool whilst she herself was the only one assigned to the Intelligence Section and the only British female soldier on station on a permanent basis. 

The new arrivals were being sectioned and put into their respective sleeping quarters after being assigned to their new units, beyond them was the make shift bar which two savvy Colonels from either allied side had decided was in order to help troops relax. It was called The Trenches, a rather apt title considering why they were all there in the first place and so with a slight spring in step, Alex started to walk across the expansive sandy area towards it.

“A little early in the day eh Sarge?” a Bronx drawl swept over her as she never lost stride.

“It is never too early in the day to consume alcohol Daniels” she replied as he fell into step beside her and made a low guttural laugh.

Anthony ‘Tony’ Daniels was the biggest African American Marine she had ever seen, he was literally huge in every department, he looked like a Sherman tank and hit like one too. He was in her unit, a Corporal who had at first been one of the men who had disliked the fact that he probably had to babysit a woman on his team but six weeks later he had changed his mind when Alex had stopped a woman in a full length abaya black dress trying to shoot his balls off when she unearthed an AK-47 from underneath the lengths of material and aimed it at his crotch.

Her friendship with the guy had changed on that day, he thanked his future children on Alex as well as her quick thinking when a round from Alex’s Glock 19 hit the woman square between the eyes. Tony was a man not to be messed with, his voice was made to be heard and he had the respect of those he served with, he had been a Marine just like his father before him and had dedicated most of his adult life to the armed forces and as his thirty eighth birthday had rolled around the week before he dedicated the savior of his balls and his first born to her.

“Boss says we roll out in the morning for patrol, don’t fancy nursing a hangover” he smiled as she nodded.

“Don’t intend to get shit faced Tony, just intend to get mellow” she smiled as she looked up at his six foot four inch frame.

“So, no re-enactment of that weekend where you sang and danced to You Can Take Your Hat Off whilst wearing the chief’s newly issued combat helmet whilst extremely off your face...I heard that he blamed some lackey in the motor pool for the theft” he laughed.

“He dared me into it, he dared me that if I would do it then all of us would get a crate of beer which you did....he never said how I was to get it or where from, so I improvised” she shrugged referring to a fellow Staff Sergeant from another unit to the members of her team.

“Didn’t help when you put it on the EOD’s robot and sent it out to a roadside device which got completely destroyed in the explosion. Major Randall had paid for that helmet out of his own pocket, custom made with all the bells and whistles, cost him a good dollar....fucker was so annoying showing the damned thing off to everyone and smarting on how all of our standard issue helmets couldn’t hold a match to his given half the chance” Daniels remembered the ongoing conversations that Randall would hold with anyone within earshot how his super duper helmet was practically terminator proof.

“He deserved it Tony, guy’s a prick” she replied as they neared a line of newly arrived.

“Yeah he is....shame you got demoted over it when he found out it was you” he nodded in agreement as they started to push through lines of idly waiting men.

"Never did find out who ratted me out but when I do...." she shook her head and smiled at her friend.

"Yeah, goodnight balls huh?" Tony returned the smile and nodded his head understanding exactly what she was capable of.

"Something like that" she laughed.


	3. SAND

Tony moved slightly ahead of Alex, he had come from a large family where the brothers were always taught to protect your sisters and he had seen Alex as a sister not that any of his sisters could do the kind of crap that she could, not that he ever wanted to see any of his two baby sisters in a combat zone but still it was how he was raised so he had only slightly edged forwards making a way for her to follow almost in step with him. Alex felt as if all time had slowed down to a crawl as she started to follow Tony, she was acutely aware of what he was doing but she let it slide, she always let it slide with him, it wasn't a fight she was going to win and he had even told her as such weeks ago, she was just told to get over it and so she did for a quiet life.

A casual sidelong glance to her left as she walked and she caught sight of a soldier looking directly at her and as time had almost slowed down to an almost standstill, in that single glance she could tell he wasn't a mere newly formed Private on parade. There was years of memories hiding within that shell of his and years of combat etched in the soft lines of his face then there was those piercing eyes. The seconds felt like a day as they exchanged looks, her own steely grey eyes locked onto his through her sunglasses and for a brief moment there was some form of connection, an unspoken one and one she couldn’t absent mindlessly figure out but it was there all the same, lost in the same amount of time that she had first spotted him.

The Trench was a welcoming sight as she and Tony were welcomed by some of the already onsite squad already deep in conversation which mostly involved women, sex, cars, action movies and sport mostly in that order too. She didn’t really care too much about some of the conversation, it was all in banter and if you are working in a predominantly male environment by your own choosing then what the hell should you expect, tea and crumpets and conversations about knitting? Which of course would of been her worst nightmare which is why she hardly spent time with the other women on the base, most of their conversations she had found inane, celebrity spotting, high heels, porno fan fiction and shopping and not in that order.

Alex had grown up in an all male household herself, her mother being the only other female of the family, she was like Tony’s baby sister in her own family, her brothers would do anything to protect her and in kind she would rough house and learn the kinds of things they enjoyed until she had reached a certain age and puberty had hit and everything had changed.

Still she would enjoy tinkering in the garage with her dad on cars, preferred to join the local paint balling team when all her female friends would spend their weekends going out shopping to buy clothes or getting their hair done and when she hit eighteen and she had been about as distant as one woman could get from all female friends, she had joined the British Army and followed in the footsteps of three of her five brothers. 

Sitting down she took the proffered beer and looked out across the parade square, her eyes scanning the lines of troops, she was looking for the soldier that had stared at her but she couldn’t find him in all the throng of bodies milling around. It was hotter than Hell outside of the cooler tent, huge fans wafted stale and humid air in and around the open environment and the old cooler which held the cold beverages banged its usual three thumps as the generator desperately tried to keep that and the electric fans on the go.

"Fuck its hot" mumbled someone leaning on stacked, empty ammo boxes that doubled as the makeshift bar.

"Its always hot man, there's just degrees of hot" a reply was shot back.

"Well, today its fucking hot" another moan of discontent was heard.

William James, Sergeant First Class was on another tour of Afghanistan, a change of pace from Iraq but he had now lost count of the amount of times he had actually volunteered for the ride, of course you got your orders and you went but he had gone out of his way to actually volunteer whenever there was word that a unit was being posted back out. 

Some higher ups had sent him for psyche medicals thinking he had lost the plot whenever his name had popped up on the roll call sheet for deployment. He wasn't mad, not by a long shot but anyone with half a brain could see that his job was his addiction, the adrenaline for his position was his fuel for life and he could never see himself doing any different and why the hell would he want to?

Civilian life would probably end up killing him in the greater scheme of things, William James was married to his job, they went hand in hand and his position in life was rather much cemented when his then wife had handed him divorce papers and told him that she had moved on. When his unit had been sent home after their tours, James had always become bored and despondent, the thrill had been taken away from him and not even thought of returning home to his family could lull him away from the excitement of deactivating a potentially catastrophic explosive device.

So, six months later, divorced and possibly never to see a son who really didn’t have the chance to get to know his dad and whom by now was calling another man ‘Dad’, Sergeant William James found himself back on familiar ground, Terra Firma he knew and there was a smile on his poignantly etched face. 

The loss of his son cut him inside but not enough for him to want to stay and be the father that the boy needed, no, not even for his son could James find the fortitude to be the father figure and so he had stood on the doorstop of his old family home waving goodbye to his one and only child knowing that quite possibly it would be the last time he would ever see him again in this lifetime and for some odd and strange feeling, that was alright with him.

Around him there was nervous chatter and laughter, he had been sent in with a group of rookies on their first deployment after passing muster as a cadet so James had kept to himself and had read a battered book someone had left behind on the rack of flight chairs in the troop transport. The plane ride had been completely uneventful at the time, he had listened to the people around him as they highlighted their expectations of what they wanted to see and do but mostly he just grinned to himself knowing that above all things, 99% of the military personnel on the plane were going to have a disappointing tour of duty. 

Life sucked balls in the desert, there was the camaraderie of course there was seeing as you had to trust the guy next to you with your life and vice versa but damn, these kids really had gotten sucked into that Army drama way of life shit. It wasn't all twinkling golden baubles and cocktails at the bar, far from and as much as he wanted to tell them this fountain of knowledge had garnered over the years, he really couldn't be assed.

He had learnt his lesson the hard way, there was going to be places that sand was going to find its way in and you'll never get rid of it. There were creatures of the night that would frighten even the biggest of men as they scrambled from out underneath your bed, don't drink the water from the tap, check your corners, never believe the locals when they tell you its the genuine article cause thats the kind of stuff that kill you and most importantly, God is almost certainly not paying you any fucking attention out here.

Stepping off of the truck, he was partially relieved to feel the heat burn a hold on the back of his head, pulling on his desert issue baseball hat he surveyed the area around him. Sanborne was nowhere to be found, of course he wasn't, the man had wanted nothing to do with him, said he found James too fucking dangerous to be let loose with any unit let alone himself.


	4. WELSH

That was fine by him and somewhere up in the gods, someone else didn’t care either seeing as they had sent him to lead another EOD unit, what James had that a majority of others didn’t have was experience, a certain set of skills but more importantly balls and he had that in spades compared to many others. 

Twenty minutes after setting foot on sand, he had been given his billet assignment and a crew roster that listed a unit of six personnel, four male, one female and himself that would make up Costa Four Two, their new call sign. Shaking his head, they really didn’t give him much to work with as he read their profiles and noted most of them hadn’t been out diapers long enough to warrant the positions they now held.

Out of all of them, Corporal Dan Sanchez looked like he could be his only friend in this situation, the man had some experience leading and had worked with previous EOD units both with the US Army and the British so there was someone there that at least knew the difference between a landmine or a remote controlled device strapped underneath some shitty pick up rolling towards a check point. 

Shouldering his heavy pack, he cast his eyes across to the huge assed African American beating a path through the swathes of the newly arrived and just in his wake, a woman was following. James found himself staring at her as she walked past, an air of authority and a face that told him that she had seen more action than probably most of the people he had just travelled with. 

There was some mutterings of general approval from some of the young males that stood around him as she walked past wearing her desert camouflage pants and a sandy coloured t shirt. The defined muscles in her shoulders and arms betrayed years of carrying heavy packs with the same weight as her fellow male compatriots although these muscles were better defined than most women he had seen in the service.

Some women looked wholly unnatural with bulging biceps whilst others looked like they hadn’t got any mostly because they had earned their ranks sat behind a desk in an air conditioned office back home. And whilst he couldn’t see her eyes he knew that they were piercing as she stared back at him not breaking her stride as she went by, a wolf whistle broke his reverie and the moment was lost as the woman had moved past the scores of young men and off towards a larger looking tent that doubled as a social gathering place.

He figured he would see her again judging by the ratio of men to women and so with that trail of thought running ever so rampant in his mind, he moved towards a row of tents that would double as his work, rest and play area for the next eight months that he had signed up for. God willing he would be alive at the end of those eight months and he would be signing on again unless some force of nature, a demi god or military grade explosives that would shred his dick from the rest of his body spirited his off the mortal coil then he would stay. 

The tent was spacious enough to house the standardised single bunks, two rows each along the inner wall of the sturdy tent and in the middle a table with some metal chairs which looked like they had seen better days. Each person had a strong box to keep personal belongings, extra clothes, boots or whatever you wanted to store as long as it wasn't food seeing as you’d need to keep that shit refrigerated but most care parcels with food in them never lasted long enough to go off in the first place.

He dumped his bag down on his bunk, he preferred to sleep near the opening as that way any kind of draft would hit him first and on hot days which was practically every single damned day, a breeze was like manner from the gods. Personnel were beginning to disperse from the main square, moving to their tents and units, he noted that he was the first to enter his tent and as such figured that at least two of his unit had claimed bunks seeing as their kit lay about which meant he was due another three in the next couple of days if they weren't already on base.

His unit wasn't due to begin operationally for another three days anyway so it would give him the chance to scope things out, see where everything was base wise and just give him a general feel of the place and the people he was going to trust with his life.

“You must be the boss” a female voice caught his attention, turning around he saw a small, young woman with a short cut blonde bob, wearing glasses and with an unmistakeably Californian accent. 

“Sergeant First Class William James” he held out his hand to her and noted how unsure she was at first at taking his hand before finally accepting it, shaking it briefly before letting it go noting her hands were cool and soft to the touch, there was a hint of Lavender which he assumed was from some hand cream she must've used minutes before.

“PFC Laura Welsh” she replied with a curt nod, she stood there looking at him for a good ten seconds before turning to face away.

“Well, PFC Laura Welsh, pleasure to meet you” he cocked his head to one side and smiled, the male part of his brain checking her ass out.

“The others will be here soon, Corporal Sanchez and I arrived together, he’s over at The Trenches” she looked down at her feet then, he was mildly handsome but he had crazy eyes as her mom would say and you should never trust a person who had crazy eyes.

Her mother had been frantic at the thought of her daughter joining the Army, being around soldiers and worst still being in the middle of all that action but mostly Laura figured her parents wouldnt want their friends finding out that all her social class went out of the window. Her parents were highly regarded in the media circles of the rich and well to do socialite circles and she figured most parents would be proud of their son or daughter joining the forces in protection of one's country and liberty but not hers. They were most annoyed that all those expensive classes on how to behave in certain circles, how to be ladylike, how to bag yourself a lawyer or a surgeon was a huge wasted opportunity.

“The Trenches?” William asked as he turned and dumped most of the contents of his bag into the storage locker at the foot of his bed and locked it pocketing the key as he looked out onto the parade ground where people were crossing it from all directions.

“Its where you can get a cold beer any time of the day or night, least it is cold most days” she shrugged, she didn’t really partake in social drinking or in fact just being social altogether which was ironic considering she had joined one of the most social networks going.

Laura told him where he could find it, it was the same place he has seen the other woman heading to earlier, an aptly named place to hang out and chill he figured as she stretched the tired muscles in her arms before sitting down on the edge of her bed. He offered to go with her but the diminutive woman politely declined his offer and slid back on her bunk, taking the hint, James pulled off the baseball cap that had been on his head and ran a tired hand over the very neatly but cropped short hair that had started to bead with sweat before dumping his cap back down on the bed.

Laura was not his type in the least, she reminded him more of the librarian kind of girl who preferred to have her hands flicking over page after page of a book about why men are such assholes or some book about kinky sex that seemed to be doing the rounds lately than trying to diffuse a neat stack of multicolored wires but hell, judging books and covers sprang to mind before he internally laughed at the ironic train of thought he had just had. 

Stepping back out into the sun, he began to idly stroll to where he had seen the woman walking and shoving hands in pockets scanned the areas around him and noted the immediate area that surrounded him. Laura watched her boss over the top of a magazine she had pulled from underneath her pillow, so far he hadn't lived up to the hype she had heard but it was early days yet and she would leave that judgment until they came over their first IED.


	5. A FULL ENGLISH

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Full English is a term used by us Brits to denote a breakfast that consists of Fried egg or scrambled egg, bacon, sausages, baked beans, mushrooms, fried tomatoes, buttered bread and a cup of tea. Yeah, we live dangerously! However it is a good source of energy considering the kind of exertion soldiers have to endure.

It was early next morning when the sound of a Chinook could be heard passing low overhead of the tent of Costa 42, it deep resonance had woken James from a fitful sleep as he pulled his left arm from underneath the cotton sheet to look at the watch on his wrist. 

It was zero five thirty, half an hour before he was supposed to be getting up anyway so he lay there for a while just enjoying the fact that the heat hadn't the chance to build up yet to make their lives that bit more intolerable. He had made it to the The Trenches the afternoon before but hadn't seen the woman he had seen, still, he kind of liked the idea of the place and figured it was a place he would be visiting more often during his off duty days.

He had met the rest of his team later on that day, other than Welsh and Danny Sanchez there was Corporal Scott Taylor, PFC Dylan Avon or Dill as he liked to be called and finally the comic of the group, Private Chad Mackie who was actually quite a funny guy but all of them had one thing in common, experience or lack there of. James wondered if this was karma for all the years he took things so out of hand, so matter of fact and without due course and consideration for others in his unit.

What he did learn was that the base was made up of around 60% American and 20% British personnel and the remainder were a mixed bunch of German and French. He had found that the object of his waking moments fell into the latter part of the equation, British, judging from the various conversations he had heard in The Trenches but that she was assigned to a US Marine unit as their Intelligence specialist. 

Brits would often get assigned to American patrols and vice versa, they shared intelligence all the time and so it was a matter of standard operations that you would get a fellow ally joining your unit on a temporary basis whilst there was some shuffling around of personnel. You could mostly tell when you had a Brit in the pack, their uniform and weapons were different for a start and then they opened their mouth, the accents could sound truly eccentric to some but then some American accents were quite shocking.

He didnt have that problem with some of the British personnel so far, he could understand every word they had said, there had been one or two occasions where he had to ask again for them to repeat themselves but they took it all in their stride. He had heard her speak, there was no regional accent but just a plain English one but not as hard and edgy as some he had heard in the day.

He smiled to himself as he turned his head to the left and cast a look through the slight gap in the tent flap which was beginning to waft a little in the early morning breeze. The sun was already up and calling many out of their bunks, he could hear people walking past and sounds of conversations carried on the wind amongst other sounds. 

Any camp never really slept, it couldn't afford to especially given their situation and position but you learned to block out all of the noise anyway, you had to otherwise you would never get an iota of sleep and become the most miserable fucker ever.

As the seconds ticked by ever so slowly, James had decided to get up, he couldn't lay there for the full half hour so in those thirty minutes he had gone to the shower block and had a shower before taking a leak and seeing to himself in the mirror, a quick shave to get rid of the couple days growth he had acquired. 

Showered and changed into a clean set of fatigues and not the ones he had sweated in the day before during the long journey to the camp, James returned to the tent he shared with his unit and noted that Welsh was already up and gone and the others were beginning to stir.

“Where’s the Mess?” James asked as he felt the beginnings of his stomach rumbling.

“Straight across, just following the smell of bacon...Brits are on breakfast duty this week and they make a mean fried breakfast...they call it a full English” Taylor smiled as he rubbed his stomach, the thought of filling it was making him smile.

“Oh yeah?” James had heard of a full English but had never been that interested in eating one although he wouldn’t of minded that morning seeing as he hadn't had much too eat the night before and the ration packs they had been given were just fucking awful by anyone's standards.

“Proper eggs and bacon, not that powdered shit our lot keep bloody feeding us” Dill nodded his head, he had been living off of powdered eggs for too long.

“Alright” James said as he dumped his wash bag in his locker and looked back through the open door of the tent where he could already see a stream of people heading in the general direction of the cookhouse.

“C’mon Sarge, lets go eat” Dan Sanchez smiled as he moved past James and out into the sunlight.


	6. THE FAMILY JEWELS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder  
> SA80 - This is a British assault rifle, standard issue to all soldiers in the British Army and different to the rifle issued to American troops.

James followed the male members of his unit, he was told that Welsh tended to stick with shit that came out of silver foiled bags, Christ knows how she could stomach that crap on a daily basis over a fresh breakfast but each to their own he figured. The smells coming from the cookhouse were intoxicating as he grabbed a tray and silverware and followed his guys as they filled their plates with whatever was on offer and as he sat down with the mug of coffee he had to admit that this was probably going to be his favourite breakfast for a long assed while.

They exchanged banter and conversation, the men sharing past experiences and where they worked and trained before coming to this camp and he entertained with some of his memories whilst working in other countries before being stationed in Hell, it was all light hearted chit chat that went back and forth and as he lifted the metal coffee mug to his lips he saw her. His eyes locked on as she walked in with the same guy he had seen her with the day before and this time they were accompanied by several more Marines, obviously the unit she was attached to.

The cook smiled as he saw them enter, James noted that she hadn’t taken a tray or a plate but waited in front of the serving station as the chef reappeared with a smaller plate and handed over to her with a smile of appreciation. Moving further down the line, Alex poured herself a cup of tea not coffee seeing as coffee would get her wound up too much over the course of the day and would result in a mild case of ADD which she clearly was in no mood for seeing as she had to go on patrol in an hour or so.

“Extra crispy, just as you like it Doc” the cook called out to her in his east end cockney accent.

“Nice one Boss” she nodded as she moved to one of the empty tables that was situated across from where James and his team sat.

“You need more meat on your bones woman” Tony remarked as he sat down with the biggest plate of fried food she had ever seen.

“I’m surprised you can still fit in your uniform Tony, your arse is getting big” she replied as she pulled her seat in under the table.

“Nothing wrong with my ass, all the ladies like my ass” he boomed as she shook her head,

“Even Bertha?” Corporal Zack Munroe sat down next to Tony and smiled as Alex laughed.

James didn’t know what the reference was about but he had heard her English accent and smiled to himself, it was as exotic as he had imagined it would be and then she had laughed, it was a dirty laugh that could get you into the kind of trouble he enjoyed. 

He watched as she absent mindedly tucked a strand of her long dark brown hair behind her ear, this time she wasn't wearing her sunglasses but he hadn’t managed to get a good look at her face. He wondered why they had called her ‘Doc’, he knew she wasn't one, he knew that she worked for the intelligence unit from the guys he had spoken to the day before when he was washing down a lukewarm beer in The Trenches so why was she labeled with the title Doc?

“I see you targeted number two” Sanchez leaned in and whispered to him from across the table.

“Huh?” James tore his gaze away unaware that he had been caught staring by the others at his table.

“Its an unwritten league of fanciable females on base, voted by most of the men here...she is number two on said table” Sanchez smiled.

“Who’s number one?” James asked wondering what he had been missing.

“That would be Bertha on account of her massive tits....blonde hair, slightly curvy, wears a Nurses uniform and oh by the way did I mention the humongous breasts?” Sanchez looked at James with a knowing look.

“I dunno, I prefer Lara myself” Taylor replied. James looked even more confused before Sanchez filled him in.

“Her nickname is Lara Croft cause Taylor reckons she looks like Lara Croft Tomb Raider and has the accent and shit, the boy is dumbstruck...number two” Sanchez looked over to where Alex was sitting and smiled as James followed his gaze.

“Women with guns too, just something about it...I don’t know, father always said there was something wrong with me but damn, way she sauntered across parade ground last week, Glock strapped to her thigh, body armour being slowly peeled off, SA80 slung over her back...I was in heaven” Taylor rested the palm of his hand against his chest and sighed.

“What’s with the Doc title?” James looked back to Sanchez.

“Story goes that they were on patrol last month and came across a convoy of mother and children trying to make their way to a nearby village for respite from the early morning bombing raids. There were only a couple of the women who were actually mothers with kids but the rest of the group were rebels, women travelling with an innocent group to get past the US patrols. Looks like they are getting away with it until one of the women starts getting a little nervous, so they stop her and ask for her papers, all goes to shit when one of the women pulls an assault rifle from out under her dress and tries to shoot off the big fellas family jewels....

....Lara smacks the woman in the face with the butt of her rifle sending the shot ricocheting and impaling in big guys ass instead as he tried to roll over and miss the incoming shot in the first place. Nobody wanted to attend his ass wound but Lara snapped on a rubber glove and saw to it without flinching, the teams medic, first time in the field has a mental breakdown at the sound of a weapons discharge and can’t pull himself together enough to pick a bullet out the guys ass cheek...they called her Doc after that for saving his junk” Sanchez said as James found his gaze returning to her table.

“She can save my junk anytime” Taylor let out as Sanchez laughed giving his friend a small hand slap.

“You know it my man” Sanchez pointed his finger at his friend.

Alex had finished her bacon sandwich and had downed the remainder of her tea before placing the mug on top of the plate and shoving it to one side, the conversation had turned to the patrol they were due to head off for and for a few minutes she began to zone out. 

She had already gone over the maps and reports the night before, she knew what they where heading into but still, the guys liked to constantly go over every minute detail till it bored her rigid, not helping that she had still yet to get one last chat with the intelligence tents chief whip on duty prior to heading out.

Leaning back in her chair, she looked at her watch, there was a good twenty minutes left and just as she was about to get up from the table she turned her head to see three sets of eyes looking at her. Two of those pairs turned away the instant she had turned her head but one pair didn’t falter in their stare, it was the same pair of eyes that she had seen the day before. 

James finally got the look he had been searching for ever since he had first seen her that day, he saw her eyes as the soft silver pupils glowed back at him and he smiled at her and waited to see if he got one back which he did. At that point and like an embarrassed school boy, he had to look down at the table and the empty coffee mug that stared back at him, he hadn’t really looked at another woman like that in a few years, not since his wife but that marriage was long gone and he was internally happy that he hadn’t lost some of his mojo.


	7. MULTIPLE HOSTILES

Alex smiled to herself before finally rising from her table and moving towards the stack of dirty trays and plates before depositing her own, a warm body almost encapsulated her own as a tray followed the path of her own. The unknown soldier with the piercing eyes cleared his throat as if he was going to say something and now would have been the perfect time if it wasn't for the fact that Riley’s compatriots were calling her, it was time for her to go.

“Fuck” James muttered as he watched her walk away, he was so close to saying hello to her but was cut off, he couldn’t understand why he felt like a virginal teenager around her, it was ridiculous and as he looked over to his own team he watched as they each gave him the thumbs down and booed at his apparent lack of success.

“Fuckers” he said to them as they followed him out the cookhouse and into the bright sunlight.

“That was fucking painful bro” Sanchez sighed as he watched his boss watch the disappearing form of the woman.

“Isn’t there something you should be doing?” James muttered as he watched her go.

“Anything would be better than seeing a grown man fuck up a simple hello” Sanchez shook his head and walked after his own people back to their tent.

James sighed, it was true, it was a pitiful performance by anyone’s standards, maybe he never had his mojo in the first place. He placed his hands in his pockets and squinted off in the distance, about to move off to follow Sanchez when he was rewarded with Riley who had turned and began to walk backwards slowly watching him, a mock salute in his general direction before returning back to face the right way and disappearing into a command tent where she was about to get her mission debriefing from one of the commanders of the British Intelligence Unit based on camp.

“There is a God” he smiled as he kicked the ground before him and began the slow walk back to his own tent.

It was midday, the worst time ever to be out on a patrol as the sun was at its most killer and the humidity just racked up its points all the time and there you were in your full combat gear, full Kevlar body armour, backpack and carrying your weapon of choice. The Marines carried their own issue assault rifles and firearms which mostly consisted of M16A4, a couple of M203's and the 9mm Beretta whilst Riley who obviously trained as per the British Army way was carrying the SA-80 rifle with a Glock 19 sidearm. 

They were all stood in a building after it had been checked and cleared by the advance recon team, a supposed hive of intelligence to be had but upon closer inspection it was clear there was nothing here other than discarded rotten vegetable matter which smelled rank as soon as you entered the building.

“This place is a bust” the team leader, the Lieutenant was a toffee nosed fucker from Chicago, Riley got a sense that he really wasn't liked by the rest of the unit due to his silver spoon upbringing which sometimes he would delight in telling people about. He wasn't going the right way of earning their respect, he had flown in a few months earlier after their last CO was killed and had practically made an enemy of every Marine in his unit on his first day.

Riley ignored him mostly, the guy may of held the rank of Lieutenant but he was as green as a commissioned officer could get, he hadn't been in command of this unit for long after taking over from the last team leader who had gotten blown up by a grenade. Looking around the room before giving the team the nod to move out, she used her boot to dust some of the sand around the floor in a sweeping motion, Lieutenant Adam Beckett looked on disapprovingly and left the building, if she wanted to piss about with sand then he left her to it.

Riley knew that Beckett had no love for her, he had told her on many an occasion that her presence was not warranted within his unit, that she had upset the apple cart and that women should basically be sat at home knitting shit and baking cakes. He had infuriated her every day since his comments, she held her own more than most in the heat of battle and whether he liked it or not, she was in it for the long run even after he had tried to get her transferred out of the unit because he "just didnt like her".

“Sergeant Cortez, prepare to move the unit out” Beckett nodded to the Latin American male, Cortez was in his mid thirties and quite the looker Alex had originally thought.

Riley kept her eyes on the ground as the remainder of the team began to file out of the room save for Tony who had remained at the entrance to the single roomed building watching over her. Tony had worked with Riley for a number of months now and had learned to trust her judgment even more so now with the asshole who was in charge, their last CO wouldn’t of been so hesitant to move out. Sighing, she had almost but given up when her foot caught something and her boot stopped moving, looking up to Tony she gave him that look and he knew instantly what it meant.

“Emilio, got something” he said in a low tone to Cortez.

Alex slowly bent down and felt around in the sand for what it was that her boot had caught and found a latch which had been buried underneath a heavy layer of sand, the latch had been closed shut from the outside. Moving her body over to one side she waited for Cortez to call in more bodies before they positioned themselves ready for when the trapdoor would open.

“Call it” Riley said as she waited to open the door, Cortez, Tony and Corporal Munroe aimed their assault rifles at where the opening would be.

It felt like an eternity but eventually Cortez had nodded for her to open the door which she did quickly and quietly, as soon as the trap door had opened Monroe had tossed in a flash bang and they turned their heads so as not to be blinded before shouting for anyone who was hiding inside to come out but nobody did. 

Their entry was hard and fast as they cleared the small room below and Alex was allowed inside, pulling the small maglite torch out she turned it on to survey the area as Beckett finally showed himself. There was Intel here, a couple of maps, hand written notes and some battered black and white photographs all of which were collected by Riley and shoved into an evidence bag before Tony opened her back pack up and put them inside before zipping it up again.

“What is it?” Beckett asked.

“Supply convoy routes to and from the camp, could be they plan on disrupting that convoy in the near future” she replied as she gave the room another sweep but found nothing.

“Its nothing new, they’re always trying to stop Munroe from getting his box of Twinkies from off his Mom” Cortez laughed.

“Don't hear you moaning when Im dishing them out Sarge” Munroe grinned as he lifted himself up and out of the hole in the floor, a small drop of around four feet.

It was during the banter that shots began to ring out above those still in the small underground room, Beckett was the first out of the hole and issuing orders as Cortez was calling out enemy positions. The rest of the unit had already taken up covering positions as Beckett made his way to the front of the building whilst behind him, Riley was already up and out of the hole quickly followed by the remainder. She pushed herself into a corner taking cover a metre or so from a glassless window, the safety had come off of her rifle and she looked across to Tony who had been listening to Beckett.

“Multiple hostiles” he called across to her and she nodded.

“Multiple hostiles with a fucking RPG” Munroe shouted over the volleys of gunfire.


	8. RAINING FIRE

“Command this is Sierra Two Two under heavy artillery gunfire, requesting support” Beckett’s voice could be heard over the loud popping sounds of rounds going off, relaying command with their co-ordinates.

“That’s a bit premature, its only one RPG” Tony muttered until Cortez called out a third and finally a fourth RPG wielding asshole.

“Motherfuckers are getting well equipped” Emilio grunted as he aimed his M16 up and took a few pot shots at a head he saw pop up from behind a balcony a good eight to ten metres or so ahead.

From her position, Riley slid up the wall beside an open no glass window frame, she could see a couple of heads pop up and down every so often and so taking aim, took at least one of them out to even the score a bit then cursed adaptively when she noted a hostile with an RPG aim in her general direction. Calling for Tony to get down, the pair of them hit the deck just as the rocket propelled grenade whooshed through the open window frame she had just been stood at and made a hole in the soft sandy wall opposite shortly before exploding debris over the pair of them.

“Fucking hell” she muttered as she looked up to see the rather large hole in the wall opposite to where she was laying.

“You okay Doc?” Tony’s voice sounded ragged but the speed at which he had thrown himself down had forced some air from his lungs.

Shrapnel had done its damage somewhat, small pockets of holes numbered in their hundreds as pieces of brick, masonry and sand which has melted to become glass projectiles had showered down on the pair of them. From her horizontal position on the floor she noted that Tony's body armour was pocketed with small holes where the shrapnel had landed, blinking away the dirt and sweat from her face, she felt a slight stinging come from the back of her left leg.

“Yeah...I think, you?” she forced herself to look up amongst the destroyed wall and dust from the kicked up sand and bricks, pushing her helmet up a little more.

“Balls are still intact” he muttered as he rolled over onto his back, hands instinctively reaching for his junk as he leant up into a sitting position.

He watched as Riley pushed herself back into a covering position, they had been very lucky as the wall of the building had become unstable from either being poorly constructed or damaged over time due to weather he didn’t know, what he did know was that the RPG had thankfully gone through most of it. Debris had showered upon them, small chippings of brick had violently hit them from every single direction but their body armour had kept them mostly safe. He noted the slight mottling of her skin, left side on her cheek and just missing her eye, small little cuts that hardly bled but would leave numerous bruises in a day or two.

"Doc, you got some blood, doesn't look major...upper left thigh" Tony squinted his eyes and noted the small tears in her combat trousers.

Reaching behind with her left hand she pressed the palm of her hand up against the dirty material and felt a slight stickiness and as she pulled it away she noted the bright red liquid on her fingertips. There was no real pain, more of a stinging sensation and fishing into one of her utility pockets pulled out a first aid bandage which she placed around her leg in a sloppy manner, there was no real time to see to it properly, that could be done back at base but at least the makeshift field dressing would stop anymore dirt and sand getting into the wound.

“Support is on its way” Cortez called out over the gunfire.

For the next ten minutes there had been intense volleys of gunfire being exchanged as slowly but surely, Sierra 22 started to make some headway from out of the hole they had originally found themselves in and on the stroke of the tenth minute, a huge assed smile appeared on Cortez’s face when he saw quite the most magnificent sight as an AH-64 Apache came in low over the horizon, its M230 chain gun cycling into operation tearing up the landscape as it flew over.

“Fuck yes!” Cortez screamed over the sound of his own weapon firing.

“Bring the pain” PFC Nathan Jonsson smiled as he checked his scope, where once their were multiple targets there were none and everything had fallen silent.

It had felt like an eternity but in actuality it was about five minutes when the pilot of the Apache signaled the all clear and Sierra 22 apprehensively crawled out from behind their cover and began to systematically check everywhere. One by one, Riley had checked the bodies of the insurgents, those that still looked human, anyone getting hit by the Apache’s chain gun rarely resembled anything human afterwards but she wasn't on the lookout for body parts, she was looking for a paper trail, intelligence but found none, orders must of been verbal only.

“Our ride is on its way in...are we clear now?” Beckett looked across to her, a note of sarcasm in his voice.

“Now we are Sir, yes” she looked across to him and watched him mutter to himself before the sound of the Chinook could be heard getting closer.

“I hate that guy” Cortez came to a stop beside her.

“He doesn’t have a likeable personality does he” she replied in a low tone.

“No, he really doesn’t” Cortez shook his head and waited for her to move first before following close behind.

Riley leant up against a half demolished wall and looked over the horizon noting the incoming troop transport, the double whoop of its rotors like a thunder of bass drums echoing around them all in a 360° arena and it was quite possibly one of the best sounds a person could hear. She made a funny face as she felt the twinge in her leg, in front of her she noted how much of Tony's body armour had actually taken a beating and she knew there and then that they had been so very bloody lucky that the wall behind them had given away due to its poor condition.

If that wall had been better constructed there would of been two dead bodies that were going to be bagged and tagged for loading on the chopper, you could never really sit and take stock of what was happening to you emotionally when the shit was flying but afterwards, you could be a psychologists wet dream. Cortez had moved over to her and noted her slapdash attempt of fixing the field dressing to her thigh was was now unraveling and pooling at her knee and without so much of a word, was on his knees and fixing it better.

"Cant have your bomb tech getting all panicky now can we?" he looked up at her and smiled, she shook her head and laughed before idly swatting at his helmet playfully.

"Oh shut up" she grinned back at him.


	9. CHOCOLATE CHEERIOS

Staff Sergeant William James had spent the day putting his team through their paces, getting them used to the equipment, seeing what their strengths were as well as their weaknesses and they all had something they could further better themselves on. He had accessed the equipment bay and had clocked what items his unit could have, tagging them for use in operation on the two armoured trucks that they had been given, one for the equipment and the other for general transport to and from wherever it is that they needed to be.

It was a bigger group than the normal three man team he was so often used to but he figured with renewed vigour came new territory, the brass had wanted him to begin a lengthy journey of sharing experiences and skills, training the future as they had told him when personally all he really wanted was to go back to that small, personal unit. 

He had changed though in the last year that he had been from diffusing explosive devices in Iraq, to returning home to find that finally his wife had told him to go fuck himself and had gotten herself a new man and baby daddy for their son to the day he had finally re-enlisted and was told he was heading for Afghanistan. He had early on in his return home had gotten himself totally shitfaced in order to deal with the mess his personal life was in, he continued on that downward spiral for a good ten days getting friendly with Frank, the old war veteran bar owner.

Frank had set him straight on a lot of things, told him to stop moping around and to get on with his life, he could still play an active part in his sons life if he really wanted to but Frank knew that there was only one thing that got James' adrenaline pumping each and every day, the one thing that made him want to get out of bed each morning and that was when he put on those desert camos and pulled on those combat boots, it had been the same for Frank all those years ago.

James had laughed when he had heard that Frank had finally succumbed to civillian life when he had met the woman of his dreams, he didnt think a woman could actually have that kind of an effect on a man, well not in that sense in anyway but Frank's chiding words of wisdom were now ringing like church bells in his ears when ever he thought of Riley. James tried to push those feeling away, tried to compartmentalize the whole idea of him having any kind of happiness like that but still, the mere thought of her had him thinking and when James had those thoughts, he scared himself.

Welsh was extraordinarily quiet, too quiet for his own liking and whilst she worked methodically and carefully the woman just never spoke which he found rather odd. Dill would often try and engage her in some form of conversation but to no avail and it wasn't until Sanchez made some off the cuff remark about feminism did she actually say something, or rather mutter something before walking away. James shook his head, how the fuck was he supposed to put his life into the hands of someone who didn’t even talk let alone look at him.

“Whats her deal anyway?” he asked Sanchez, finally, as he watched Welsh head back to their tent.

“You’re asking the wrong man, Ive no idea, the only thing Ive ever gotten out of her was her name, rank and the fact she hates chocolate cheerios....I mean who the fuck hates chocolate cheerios?” Sanchez stacked a crate up on top of another and moved to join his boss.

“You got me” James shrugged.

“Where is she on your list Tay?” Sanchez looked over to Taylor who was finishing with the Quartermaster.

“Miss strong and silent? Second to last I think, its debatable between her and that chick from the motor pool” Taylor stuffed his hands in his pockets and came to a stop beside Sanchez.

“Ooh, yes, Dirty Gertie....looked like she had been dropped on the face at birth, or hit with a spade but has wandering hands, always grabbing your junk man, woman is obsessed with genitals” Sanchez squirmed a little at the thought.

Taylor shivered at the same time remembering the woman and her fascination with the male genitalia, she wasn't pretty by any ones standards but if you wanted a mercy lay then Dirty Gertie as they called her would always be happy to oblige, she was after all the base’s bicycle as the British had called her, realising that they meant that everyone had ridden her save for the Padre who had managed to fight her off using religion but that old hat was now wearing thin with Gertie.

“Hey Tay, your bird’s on her way in...they came under heavy fire” a male voice called from a few tents down as Taylor shifted his weight to see who had shouted him and noted the British squaddie who waved at him.

“Is my baby injured?” he grinned at Delgado.

“There was mention of some minor injuries but I think Lara can take care of herself” he laughed before disappearing into a command tent.

James rolled his eyes as Sanchez placed a large hand on Taylor’s shoulder and began to move him away, explaining how he just couldn't keep referring to the woman as his baby. James could hear the Corporal’s defence, for some reason James hated to hear him refer to her as Lara as well, there were many fine attributes to Riley and some she did of course share with the computer generated icon but, at the end of the day Lara Croft was a fixation of the imagination where as Alex Riley was a living, breathing human being.

He found himself on the edges of the landing site of the helo’s, he was watching for the incoming transport that was returning Sierra 22 and as he sat on a large empty ammo crate he found himself getting all nervous again. He hadn't allowed someone get under his skin like this not in a long assed while, he had only been in camp for just over 24 hours and already he was having this nagging in the back of his mind telling him that he needed to see her every day. 

His dick was obviously talking to him in a rather different way but for now he could ignore that little fucker, his brain needed to engage first and actually get two words out towards her before anything else happened. Minor injuries, he remembered the soldier saying, as much as he wanted to slap Taylor for his remark he too noted the nervous disposition he had held himself in when he had heard that she could of been injured.

Hearing the deep, low vibrations of the Chinook double rotors made him look up where he found the incoming helo about to land, its back door already open where a gun mount had been placed and an operator casting a critical eye over the landscape as the pilot landed the bird without incident. He watched them slowly pile out, they would have to move his way, the command tents were behind him and past them were the living quarters. 

There was one Marine limping and he was being supported by another, the big bugger came out next and he watched for her eventually stepping off the ramp and back onto the sandy surface and inside he was smiling. He was clocking the fact that there was no sign of a limp, no sling wrapped arm, her head seemed fine and as his eyes travelled south he noted the field dressing wrapped around the top half of her leg and his eyes narrowed somewhat before relaxing. Minor injuries he chastised himself, he figured a burst of shrapnel could be to blame as he watched her heading his way, he was after all sat near to the medical tents, now his brain went into overdrive again, what the hell was he going to say?

"Don't say anything fucking stupid" he muttered to himself.


	10. DOG DAYS

He watched as they neared to where he sat, nodding at the few that walked past his way, pretending he wasn't there for anything other than just to relax and chill and not look conspicuous at all and finally as she neared, he watched her remove her helmet and he could see the flecks of cuts that adorned her cheek and around her eye but mostly they looked minor. She looked tired though as she neared him, he wanted right now to say something, say something intelligent but he feared that if he opened up his mouth he would only sound like a prick.

Her leg was starting to get sore as the cuts and open wound began to chafe as she walked, the gauze did little to stifle the abrasive feeling when her skin rubbed against it every time she moved and she was glad to be within spitting distance of the medical tents. She looked over and noted how James looked on sheepishly, his eyes cast downwards and the constant folding and unfolding of his arms like a nervous teenager on a first date made her smile inwardly.

“Hey” she nodded at him, she spoke first which alleviated his problem somewhat.

“Been in the wars?” he asked as he casually pointed at her face and smiled.

“Comes with the job” she replied as she then stopped by him, watching as the rest of her unit headed for either their tents or the first aid station, whatever was nearest.

“Got a bit hairy then” he nodded, she was actually standing in front of him, he felt a bit stupid with his questions but at least his brain was working and not lulling him into some false sense of security before dropping a stupid fucking remark.

“Terry Taliban is getting better at taking pot shots with RPG's...could of been a lot worse I suppose” she shrugged as she reached up and touched her cheek, a small wince before absentmindedly wiping some sand from her face.

“Well, Im glad you’re okay” he said as he leant forwards resting his arms on his knees and clasping his hands together in front of him, his eyes lingered on the field dressing at her thigh.

“Me too...nice chatting with you” she smiled before nodding her head to herself, moving off in the direction of the others.

“Hey, if you’re not doing anything, fancy getting a spot of lunch?” okay, he threw it at her, may as well strike whilst the iron is hot he figured.

“Umm...sure, okay...give me twenty minutes to get this gear off and make sure my leg isn't going to drop off and you can buy me lunch Sergeant James” she squinted against the bright sun and walked off

She knew his name. 

He watched her walk away and the grin on his face couldn’t of been any bigger seeing as he didn’t come across as a total tool and secondly and more importantly, she had used his name, okay in an official capacity and not calling him Will but still, she must’ve enquired about him and that made him really smile like a buffoon almost. Better still she had agreed to go and eat with him, right there and then life seemed pretty sweet and he could die happy knowing at least he had the next hour or so spent in her company. 

Sanchez had been watching from their tent, nodding intently to himself that James had finally plucked the courage to get a two minute conversation in, beside him his friend was already feigning displeasure at not getting in there first. He shoved Taylor with his hand backwards and watched as James hung around watching Riley depart for the medical tent disappearing inside before he himself made a move back to his own tent.

“She’s breaking my heart, him speaking to her before me, that’s ungentlemanly, we may have to have words” Taylor sighed.

“Shut up Taylor you asshat” Sanchez grinned as Welsh stepped into the tent and aimed herself for her bunk.

“Hey Welsh, would you do me the honour of having lunch with me as my heart has suffered a devastating blow and needs nursing” Taylor sat on his bed and looked across to her. His hands moved to his chest right where his heart was located and his deep brown eyes went all puppy like with the intent of getting the most frigid woman he has known to at least show some kind of heart even if it were in jest.

“No” she replied.

Nope, she didnt have a heart and Taylor figured it may be a complete waste of his time trying to figure out just where she might keep it. He had considered she kept it in a mess tin in her foot locker at the bottom of her bed or that God simply suggested that Welsh could tick on by without actually having one in the first place, either way, there was no point trying to wrestle an emotion from out of that woman as she simply didnt have any.

“Welsh, you’re not going to get your five a day out of those tasteless ration packets” Nate nodded to her as he flicked the next page over of his car magazine.

“Don’t knock them till you tried them” she muttered as she pulled a small shoe box from under her bed and took off the lid, inside she kept all kinds of odds and sods that she had collected and today she had collected a pebble from off the floor that had an almost iridescent shine to it.

“I did, they gave me the squits for a week and Bertha kept insisting in jabbing me in the ass with the biggest fucking hypodermic in her cabinet” Nate flinched as the memories came flooding back.

"Stay clear of the Cauliflower Cheese, that shit could effectively kill you....especially if used as a replacement for a mortar shell, I hear it can do some considerable damage when cooked" Dill replied as he bent down to retie his boot laces.

"I like the cauliflower cheese man, that stuff is lovely" Mackie replied shaking his head.

"What? Something wrong with you man" Dill shook his head and smiled at his friend.

“Yeah, c'mon Welsh, you do realise how anti-social you’re being by not joining us at meal times” Taylor shot over his shoulder.

Welsh sighed, it was true that she was the most antisocial of the group, it was their banter though they were mostly crude towards women but her parents had warned her of this, had told her that she was joining a male dominant society, what else was she to expect? Top hat and tails for dinner followed by an evening of dancing in the makeshift ballroom? No, of course not, she had joined the Army to get out from under her parents critical eye all of the time, had they had their wish they would of had her married off to some boring accountant whose family and heritage matched that of her own, Laura Welsh came from money and high society not balls to the wall bravado.

“Fine” she said finally breaking the silence as she replaced the lid of the box and slid it back under her bed.

“You mean,,,,you will be joining us for lunch?” Taylor wasn't quite sure he had heard right.

“As long as conversation doesn’t dip into how big Bertha’s breasts are or the fact women cannot drive to save their lives” she smoothed down the blanket on her bed and stood straight.

“Ooohhh, Welsh, could be difficult but Im up for a challenge” Taylor smiled at her before nodding to Nate and Sanchez.

"Seriously, you girls cant drive" Dill shook his head.

"And you can? Boy you near drove over a goddamn IED the last time we gave you the keys to the car....I do not wish to have a repeat of that incident and therefore will never get into another vehicle whilst you are driving" Sanchez jabbed a finger in Dill's general direction.

"Oh come on Boss, one time, one goddamn time and all of a sudden its 'don't give Dill the keys' or 'don't get in the vehicle if you value your junk' whenever Im stood by the driver's side" Dill shook his head and made to move past Sanchez.

"I do value my junk, I value it very much and I don't wanna be picking pieces of it up as it lays scattered around the sand dunes cause you cant fucking see the wood for the trees" Sanchez mocked Dill as he followed him out of the tent.

If James thought that he was going to be able to spend an hour in Riley’s company, alone, he was sorely mistaken as they had only been sat down five minutes together when the remainder of his unit had taken it upon themselves to sit down at his table. It wasn't as if he couldn't tell them all to fuck off which he would of done but he didn’t want to come across as a complete asshole to the woman sat opposite him so he just gave them all that knowing look and looked down at his place disappointed. 

He was however surprised to see Welsh take a seat beside Riley, all he had ever see her eat were MRE’s or Meals Rejected by the Enemy as some so lovingly like to call them so this was a turn up for the books. Banter was exchanged back and forth, jokes were made where some were of questionable taste and others he admitted to himself were rather funny and all of which Alex Riley had taken in her stride. Laughing when it deserved a laugh, pulling a face at other times and surprising them all with some of the dirtiest jokes of her own which had gotten Taylor laughing till he practically choked on his burger.


	11. SOLITUDE'S MISFIT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Again, no Beta, hope you enjoy!

“You okay there Corporal?” Alex had patted him on the back and as he nodded, grabbed the water bottle, taking a deep drink from it.

“I didn’t think those were the kind of jokes you knew” he coughed a few times, clearing his throat before taking another drink.

“Never judge a book by its cover Corporal Taylor” she replied as she was reassured he was alright and removed her hand from his back.

The topic of conversation had been quite entertaining but Welsh was finding it all a little difficult to swallow, this Alex Riley seemed to be in her element sat with the men and in a way Laura was jealous of the way she could openly talk to them and not feel like twenty pairs of eyes were looking her up and down and thinking the way that men usually seem to do. 

Alex had tried to bring her into the conversation but it wasn't the choice of topics she really had interest in, she knew nothing of cars which seemed to engross her boss to Riley, she couldn’t lean on the wealth of experience of which she didnt have so much of or that she shared with them all as Laura had only been in the Army coming up for 19 months now. Nineteen months was long enough in Riley's eyes and the British woman had told her as much, you would be surprised at what a person could see in a small amount of time and Laura seemed to think that Riley was just trying to placate her rather than sympathize.

Laura knew that it wasn't a competition but she felt like she was the complete outsider, that whatever she offered up in conversation was completely glossed over by the men in her unit and that had pissed her off. And then there was that stupid bloody list that was nailed up on the mens bathroom door, a constant margin that kept changing every week with who they felt was the most screw-able in their section of camp, it was a disgusting thing that had been reported on, removed and found a new home elsewhere when the dust had settled.

Most women who had inadvertently found it had usually removed it, ripped it up or set fire to it most days but it was like a bad smell, it would always return and nobody ever knew the source and so some women had decided to have their own list, a male counterpart to the female list and there were some faces on there she identified and some she hadn't. All she knew that at the top of the list was some fly-boy from the Royal Air Force who looked and spoke like a cross between Tom Hiddleston and Colin Firth and that most of the women on the base seemingly fell over themselves to get a look at him.

She smirked when she noted that none of the men from her own squad made the top twenty of the list but there was a second and more obnoxious list that existed and that was of bad boys on base and that several on that list did belong to her unit. Hopefully that list would never see the light of day otherwise she would never hear the end of it, bad boys and the women who were attracted to them, it literally turned her stomach.

They carried on talking and Laura quietly observed as James looked directly at Riley, he had been playing with his sandwich for a good five minutes now as he seemingly hung on every word that damned British woman was saying and as the others chatted away, Laura noted the looks that Riley and James were giving one another. 

Part of her wanted to say something, deep down in the pit of her stomach she was insanely jealous that nobody had looked at her like that, not in a long time and that nobody wanted to spend five minutes alone with her to just talk but instead they would ridicule her choices regarding any subject matter that remotely interested her or them. It wasn't Riley’s fault that she was the confident one, Laura was obviously just having a very bad day trying to live with the fact that she wasn't the only woman the men in her unit were now happy to have around.

It was true, she had felt spoilt with having five other men around her all the time, she felt quite high on the fact that for a certain length of time the only woman they had to look at was her and so she regaled in that fact but now that had all changed. They had moved to this camp, had taken on a new team leader and she found herself in competition with another woman who was quite clearly very popular with many people in the camp. 

Personality wise, she had everything that Laura did not have, a sense of humour for starters and the way she would take risks just to get a laugh like the time she stole that damned helmet, an incident that she had lost her Lieutenant promotion over because Laura Welsh, in a fit of insane jealousy had reported Alex Riley to the base commander over it. Stripped back to Sergeant, a small victory Laura internally had rejoiced over but only for a very short time seeing as it hadn’t rattled Alex Riley as much as she hoped it had so that had pissed Laura off even more.

“Is it true what they said about that guys combat helmet? You really put it on a Dragon Runner and sent it out to a suspected IED?” Taylor asked then as if he had read Welsh’s mind, Laura stiffened and sat up then looked down the table at the rest of them as all eyes cast furtive glances in Riley's direction.

“Dragon Runner?” Nate furrowed his brow at Riley.

“Its a British back pack-able, multi-terrain vehicle that gets sent out to assess roadside explosive ordnance....and yes, I did” she replied with a nod, leaning back in her chair.

“Why? I mean the guy got it back didn’t he?” Taylor shrugged.

“He did yeah.....he hadn’t got a clue that I had taken it to the camp’s karaoke night and danced around with it on my head all night...tried it out, see how indestructible it really was” she smiled and looked down at her feet under the table.

“You can leave your hat on....I’ve seen the video” Sanchez smiled at her as Riley remembered the night very well and groaned.

James looked back at forth between them as she reminisced how she had gotten quite drunk and took on a bet to not only steal it from the Major’s private bunk room but walk past him wearing it before taking it for a spin around the makeshift dance floor in the Trenches were she had been videoed on cell phones singing and dancing whilst wearing it before replacing the thing back on the man’s night stand before he knew it had gone. James felt himself captivated by the story and had now wanted to see it, Sanchez had promised to show it him under duress from Riley who protested that Sergeant James really didn’t want to see her shit faced and dancing with this bloody hat on.

“No, I really do want to see that video” he replied as Riley felt a slight flush of embarrassment, her eyes looked down at the table then pretending to examine the crumbs on her plate before looking back up at him.

James watched the slight flush of embarrassment and smiled, there was no way in hell that he wasnt going to miss out watching that video seeing as though it actually existed. Underneath the table he tapped his boot on to hers and watched as her eyes looked up at him and those once stormy but now softened orbs seemingly danced with expectation as she bit on her lower lip. All of those small little movements, twitches and looks were being recorded by his own brain and were making him eager to want to leave everyone else behind and just sit in solitude with her, to explore everything else she would be willing to share with him.

“So, why did you end up sticking it on the robot then?” Taylor asked, breaking the small pocket of silence that had swept between James and Riley.

“He found out, came down hard on me but took the punishment out on my unit instead and I got pissed, stole it from out his tent, asked to join Bluestone 42 for a patrol run. Came across a possible IED, they sent the robot and I stuck the helmet on it, fortunately it was a knackered bot and it got blown to smithereens as did the Major’s helmet” Riley nodded to herself then remembering the even well, she didnt take kindly to being ratted on or that her actions had spoken punishment for the men she served with who had no personal involvement in her actions in the first place.

“Woah, so.....not as indestructible as he first thought then huh?” Taylor laughed.

“I got demoted, lost my Lieutenant promotion because of it....we were going to say that it was accidentally put into the old stock room by mistake, same room that took a direct hit by an incoming mortar round but somebody ratted on me, hung me out to dry....never found out who. Oh well, can’t see me getting another promotion for a long arsed time” she replied as she took the bottle of Pepsi and finished the last of it, leaning back in the chair she aimed for a nearby garbage bin and expertly threw the empty plastic bottle into it.

“That is a fucking low thing to do, nasty motherfucker” Taylor shook his head.

“Well, there’s always gonna be a spanner who doesn’t like you to enjoy yourself too much” Riley said with a slight smile as she looked around at the faces who were seemingly engrossed by her story, all except one and she wasn't the only one who had noted Laura Welsh uninterested face at the table. 

Sanchez had mostly focused on Riley but every once in a while he took a look around the table and noted the number of times that Welsh wasn't even looking at any of them, was too busy looking everywhere else except for the one place she should of been looking and when she finally did decide to look, she had caught him staring at her. Sanchez got the creeps from Welsh, not in a weird, scary kind of a way, more like she was the worlds biggest misfit trying to fit into a square edged puzzle with circular sides.

At this point Riley got up and was going to make head way back to her tent, James moved with her, as entertaining as it was having his people around him, he hadn’t had the time to spend five minutes alone with Riley and so as the pair of them walked out of the tent together chatting, Sanchez had looked down the table again back to Welsh who was purposely ignoring them but had a small upturn to the corner of her lips, he had noted her demeanor when Riley had spoken of her demotion and something in Sanchez had gotten very suspicious of Welsh right there and then.


	12. MAN CAVE

James had enjoyed their time together but really they hadn't spent ‘time together’ seeing as his unit had voluntarily seen to it that they weren't to be alone even for five minutes. He stood out in the warmth of the sun and noted a small breeze pass over the skin on the back of his neck, it felt as if fingers were tickling him there and it felt strangely erotic to him. At his side, she was looking past the command post and communication relays and looked almost lost in thought, he wondered what she was thinking as he pondered what the hell to say to her.

“So, second time at trying to get me to yourself and both times thwarted, Id say you are on a losing streak Sergeant” she looked over to him and noted the realisation that she knew what he had been trying to achieve all along.

“Third time’s a charm” he squinted his eyes at her as the sun had moved round and was now staring him hard in the face until she shifted her position to block out its almost blinding rays offering some relief.

“Who says theres gonna be a third time?” she cocked her head at him and he stifled a laugh.

“You turning me down?” he ran a hand through his short cropped hair and stared back at her, shaking his head in amusement.

“Who said I was turning you down?” she countered.

“Damn woman, you're gonna make me work for this huh?” he smiled as she laughed then, he found himself almost drowning in her eyes right there.

“A woman shouldn't be so quick to give in to a man even after his terrible efforts at trying to get her to himself” she said as he laughed some more and nodded to himself, back in his teenage years he merely had to look in the direction of a woman and he was in luck, being older didnt necessarily mean he was any better at this game.

“Maybe I should just go caveman on your ass and drag you by the hair back to my man cave” he looked up then looking for a response.

“Oh thats just wrong....man cave? Really? Thats the best you can come with?” she placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the right slightly, a softening smile played on her lips.

“And what would you suggest?” he countered as he watched her look off into the distance once more before her gaze turned back to him.

He hadn't expected her next move, the way she almost closed the distance between them in a mere matter of milliseconds, the way her face was almost touching his and the way he could feel her sweet breath on his skin. He took in a huge lung full of air as he found himself straying into those deep and unending pools of silver and his dick had decided right there and then to stand to attention. 

He could smell the light scent of peppermint lip balm on her lips, it helped against the sun drying out the skin there and he himself would use some kind of balm just to stop his lips from cracking. His hands remained at his sides then as she stared him down, being this close had elicited his body to react in all the ways it should do under the covers and not out in the open like this, where everyone could see them.

“Something like this” she said to him then, her voice low, sultry even as he found his legs betraying him, moving closer to her as they very almost touched, his hands had gingerly reached out and had come to a rest on her hips, the rough skin on his fingers had covered the almost silky smooth of her own fingers but she hadn't flinched.

“Oh” was all he could muster.

“Oh?” she replied questioningly.

“Its better than my man cave suggestion” he swallowed hard as he felt her fingers slide from under his own and up the length of his arms brushing the granules of sand that would always stick to exposed skin. Her fingers were almost smooth but not quite, environment, weather and job satisfaction paid a huge price for keeping skin as silky smooth as folks back home but he didnt care, not one iota, in fact he reveled in her touch as she slipped fingers up over his sleeved and down and onto his hips nestling on the sandy coloured cotton material of his tee.

“Does this do it for you Sergeant James?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper as he felt her lips a mere breath from his own, wisps of her hair tickled his face and her fingertips were making small circular motions on his sides.

“God, yes” he muttered out his reply, his thumbs moved in circles on her hip joints mimicking her own movements on him, slowly building in swirls as he did so, his eyes never wavered from their locked on position and he had stayed like that for what felt like an eternity wanting ever so much to taste her peppermint flavoured lips.

“Third time’s a charm” she had said, he could feel her lips moving against his own as he felt the air catch in the back of his throat, her lips very nearly almost glided over his own at that point, an almost kiss that made his knees buckle slightly at the way she had closed the distance between them making the space so much more intimate.

“I have Friday off....maybe you wanna come over and....” he couldn’t finish his sentence, he could hear the voices coming closer and he knew that her body would pull away from his which could be a disaster in the pants department for him especially.

“Friday.....I’ll see you in your man cave” she replied before the gap between them grew, the hot desert air circulated around him once more and she was walking off.

“Oh yeah....man cave” he smiled to himself and looked down to make sure junior wasn't going to show him up.


	13. THE CONVERSATION

Training day had turned into action day, they had been called out a number of times to varying degrees of unexploded ordnance mostly to clear a path for the patrols to pass by safely, mostly devices that looked like they had been cooked up by some spotty sixteen year old in his bedroom. Still, given half the chance they could still do some damage no matter how amateur they looked and so James had given his team the chance to have a bash at disarming them rather than taking them himself, it also gave him the opportunity to see just how well they could put their training into practice and for the most part he was impressed.

“So, tell me, you gonna make a move on our English rose or you just building up the nerve to just.....do it” Sanchez sat in the drivers seat of the Humvee and cast a critical look at his Sergeant who popped a piece of gum in his mouth as he watched over the last device being deactivated by Corporal Taylor.

“Why? Is this some competition or something?” James asked as he looked across to the one man he had made some kind of connection with, a friendship was blossoming between the two and James didn’t make friends very easily.

“Nah man, far be it for me to piss on your parade but you know, fucking lions take less time to get it on with their women than you do” Sanchez replied and elicited a laugh from his boss.

“That woman, takes time. She isn’t a roll in the sack, a quick one up girl y’know, nah, she’s special and special takes time” James replied remembering his almost kiss outside the cookhouse.

“Are you falling love?” Sanchez raised an eyebrow at James, in the short amount of time he had known him and after reading his personnel file, he figured he wasn't the falling in love kind.

“Who the fuck knows” it was about an honest an answer he could give.

There was a palpable few silent minutes as both men stared out of the window, each lost in their own thoughts. Sanchez watched the team work the equipment, watched them joking and noted that Welsh kept herself on the outside whilst James was also staring off out the window but his mind was lost in the answer he had given Sanchez about falling in love. Was he falling in love? He had no idea really, he knew that he liked the woman, okay more than liked but was it love, really? He wasn't sure what was going on in his brain anymore, he had become a changed man in the past six months that much was for certain and he considered Sanchez’s words as they rattled around in his brain,

“Can I ask you a question and can we keep it between us?” Sanchez took a deep breath, breaking the silence as he cast a watchful eye outside the Humvee before turning fully to look at James.

“Sure” James nodded and turned to face his friend, he could see his brow furrowing, there was something playing on his mind and it was evident that he was having trouble being open about it.

“It may be nothing, I dunno” Sanchez started, shaking his head but went quiet wondering if he was doing the right thing.

“You can tell me anything man, between us...spit it out....you trying to tell me you’re gay or something?” James narrowed his eyes at him trying to lighten the mood.

“No! No...I am not gay, not that Im saying there’s anything wrong with being gay but I like big titties and women.....especially big titties on women so no, not gay and no, that’s not what I wanna ask” Sanchez looked at his boss and saw the smile on his face.

“Alright, not gay, got it...so?” James watched as Sanchez again cast a critical eye outside the window looking out on their team.

“So, Im thinking maybe one of our team is...possibly unhinged” there he had said it as James looked out the window.

“Okay, so Im unhinged, I like disarming bombs, put me away in a padded cell” James held up his hands in a mock surrender.

“No man, not you....you, you are fucked up in the head if your personnel record is anything to go by....sorry....nah, her” Sanchez looked at PFC Laura Welsh and watched her every move as she stood over Taylor helping to remove the bomb suit whilst Dill looked on joking with his friend.

“Welsh? Unhinged? Seriously?” James looked from Welsh to Sanchez and back to Welsh again and wondered what methylated spirits Sanchez had been sniffing that morning.

“I watched her in the cookhouse, things she says, Ive known her while longer than you...something is just off about that woman. Honestly, I don’t trust her” Sanchez shook his head.

This concerned James, trust was a big thing within a close knit team that depended upon one another and truth be told he had an issue with trust the last time he was out here. He had acted like an utter prick to his last team mates, he gave them growing concern each and every time they got a call to go out and so could understand the concerns that Sanchez was now telling him about. He had changed since his last few outings in Iraq, he still liked the call of the adrenaline, he loved the feeling of being faced with quite possibly death at every corner but he had learned that he couldn’t do it alone anymore and now in Afghanistan he had felt totally different, acted differently.

“What makes you say that?” James leant back in the passenger seat and slowly continued to chew his gum.

“I watched her when Riley was telling us about the whole demotion story, Welsh looked like she was enjoying the fact that the woman got caught and was demoted, it was such a sly smile...I dunno, maybe Im reaching but even before you came she was just off with people, I mean why join the fucking army if you’re gonna be like the most anti-fucking-social human being on the face of the planet?” Sanchez shook his head and sighed.

“Guess we just gotta keep our eye on her then, can’t really do much with just a hunch...I could ask a few people, see if anyone knows who dropped Riley in it” James shrugged.

“S’pose” Sanchez agreed, nothing they could do without proof but at least he could share his concerns with James.

“Maybe she is jealous or something, bitches get jealous over the smallest of things, maybe she just rolled out of her pit the wrong side or you know...hormones” James watched Welsh pack away the bomb suit as Dill and Taylor joked around, he noted the derision she obviously took at their friendly poking and prodding of one another and like a mother hen clucking around her disobedient kids, she warned them off but it had little to no effect on them.

“Trust me, you’ll know when its her...time, its like living with fucking Satan for three days at a time...no, this is different man, I mean I can understand the hardships and all being a woman in an all male exclusive fun zone, must be difficult. Riley seems to cope well but then Riley seems more confident, more out going whereas Welsh will just go sit on her bed reading fucking empowerment books or that fifty shades of bullshit that’s doing the rounds” Sanchez fell back into the drivers seat and just stared at her.

“Well, like I said, nothing much I can do without the flaming sword of evidence Sanchez so we’ll just have to keep our eyes and ears open and see what comes of it” James nodded.

“Yeah, I guess so...could be she has a touch of the green eyed monster seeing that the beefcake of the squad has his eye on someone else” Sanchez laughed then breaking the seriousness of the mood.

“Fuck off Sanchez, thats not even funny” James grinned as he rested his elbow on the inside of the passengers window, the air con at its extreme did little or nothing to help alleviate the heat so he rolled down the window which still really didn’t have the desired effect.

“Yeah it is, a little bit” Sanchez continued to laugh as James shook his head.

Sanchez was a cheeky fucker but he made the long days that much more bearable with his humour which he could turn off and on like a tap but he liked the camaraderie he shared with the man. He reminded him a lot of Sanborne, he figured they could of been best friends had James not acted like a prized, first class asshole but still, those days were gone by the by and he had to live in the moment. Their equipment truck and been reloaded with their gear and Taylor nodded to Sanchez that they were ready to pull out whenever the boss was ready and for James it couldn't come soon enough seeing as they had been out all day in the shitty assed heat deactivating small devices.

“Home James” James grinned as Sanchez shook his head, starting the Humvee and putting the vehicle into gear.

“Com Ops to Costa Four Two, we have an elevated situation requesting your assistance at grid ref...alpha romeo four four niner...ten clicks south east of your current position...confirm” the radio crackled into life.

“This is Costa Four Two, grid ref alpha romeo four four niner confirmed, any more information?” Sanchez answered the radio as James looked on.

“Stand by Costa...confirmed, unexploded ordinance, patrol has encountered plate sensitive mine and has a member stood on it....have been waiting for three hours for assistance” command ops back at camp confirmed.

“Confirm, three hours?” Sanchez shook his head, poor bastard had been stood on a plate sensitive mine for three hours in the baking sun waiting for help, that was just plain wrong.

“Confirm Costa, area is a hot zone but all insurgents have now been neutralized, requesting you rally at their point for assistance as soon as possible” Ops replied.

“Understood, Costa Four Two are en-route, out” Sanchez tilted his head at James and pointed to his team to get in their truck and follow.


	14. I CHOOSE A KISS

Tired, thirsty and just that little bit scared, Riley felt as though the weight of the world was on her shoulders, ironic when really the weight rested on a small metal plate under her boot which if removed would blow her to kingdom come, body parts scattered to the four corners of the shit hole she found herself in. Cortez had taken her rifle from off of her and she had already removed her helmet as her head felt like it was on fire but was wet from all the sweat escaping and pooling in the armoured headgear. She had remained calm even when there had been a firefight going on in her vicinity, Cortez and Tony had refused to take proper cover and had protected her as much as they possibly could from their vantage points.

She had no idea it would be well over three hours before anyone had decided to come out, she had swayed slightly in the midday heat of the suns rays and had managed to stay upright but had flinched when a stray bullet during said firefight had pinged off some metal corrugated roofing and straight into her back pack burying itself in her body armour virtually stopping it in its track. She had heard how Cortez kept calling base for assistance every twenty minutes or so until eventually his words got a little personal with the douche bag on the other end of the radio back at base, threats to his genitals finally seemed to work.

“They will be here soon, apparently they've been busy themselves diffusing IED’s on patrol routes, must be having a special on bomb making equipment at the local IED’s Are Us” Cortez tried to make light of the situation.

Since their last incursion, Cortez had been given temporary command of Sierra Two Two after Lieutenant Beckett had taken the decision to step down from leading the team, something to do with him not being able to cut it in a fire fight. At least the brass could see the woods for the trees when it came to Beckett’s command style but instead of admitting his failures they had given him a desk job back at camp until he decided he was going to grow his balls back and rejoin his unit. Cortez had been doing a bang up job though and the men seemed more at ease with his command style preferring him over Beckett, the latter had no respect for his men and therefore they had no respect for him, respect was earned and Beckett hadn't earned his yet.

“Good job I don’t need to pee” Riley smiled but in all honesty, it was probably going to be the first place she would be stopping off back at camp, filling up on water was a hazard of the job considering the heat as it was very easy to get dehydrated out in the desert.

“Its not as if you can point and shoot it” Tony laughed causing the other two to laugh along.

“Jesus Tony, don’t make me laugh” she said as she rested her hands on her stomach.

“Sorry” he offered as he heard the sound of engines getting closer.

“Cavalry’s arrived Boss” Cpl Munroe called out as Cortez walked out to greet the EOD team that had been sent.

From her position Riley couldn't see who it was nor could hear what was being said but she figured Cortez was giving them the run down, telling them the score and saying something about trying not to blow her up or he would get very angry or words to that effect. Sanchez had been the first out of the Humvee as behind him the equipment truck came to a stop behind them, James moved towards the truck and wondered which of his unit he was going to field test on the sucker when Sanchez disappeared around the corner to check on the Marine on the mine before reappearing, a Sergeant from Sierra 22 was already relaying the information to him but Sanchez didn’t seem to be paying enough attention and had called James over.

“Sergeant first class Emilio Cortez, Sierra 22 CO, this is Sergeant first class William James, commanding officer of this here EOD unit....you should check it out Boss” Sanchez didn’t want to say it aloud for the others but rather inclined his head around the corner.

“This one’s important James” Cortez said in a low voice.

“They all are” James said as he moved past Sanchez and Cortez and rounded the corner to see the back of the guy who had been unfortunate to step on the mine and was greeted with a terrible twisting in the pit of his stomach.

He knew who it was, he didn’t have to come around her to see it was Riley and right there and then he told himself to suck it up and get on with his job. Moving around to face her, she looked tired, really tired but in that moment bloody delighted and relieved to see him standing in front of her. She smiled at him, a nervous smile and who the hell could blame her as he looked down to see her boots, he had been informed it was a soft click that was heard when her right foot had come down.

“Easy peasy Japanesey” James smiled at her as Sanchez appeared at his side with a roll pack where inside there were some tools he could use for these kinds of situations.

“Okay, i need you to fall back Sarge, have to keep this area clear” Sanchez looked first to Cortez then onto Tony who remained steadfast at her side.

“I aint budging” Tony said as he looked directly at Riley.

“Yes you are Tony...don’t want to be worrying over your safety too....let the man do his job” Riley turned her head to face her friend, he kept shaking his head but she told him again and this time Cortez gave the order, he knew the stakes and he wasnt blind to the fact that Sergeant James was sweet on his Intel officer.

Sanchez had ushered them out and nodded to James, he would be clearing the regulated distance for the others but he himself would be close by should he need any help which more or less left James alone with Riley as he undid the roll of equipment and unfurled it before him. He knelt down in silence and using his hands slowly began to remove the loose sand and dirt from around her boot so that he could get a better look at what he was seeing. A Russian claymore attached to a primer pressure plate which accounted for the pressure sensitive soft pop they heard, Russian claymores came with a pin hole that one could simply slip a small metal pin or something similar in thus rendering the mine safe once more providing the idiot laying the mine didn’t glue up the hole in the first place because if they did then that would be a game changer that Riley may not be able to walk away from, literally.

“If you had wanted to see me this badly, you could've just dropped by, all this trouble for me?” he looked up from his kneeling position to see her eyes fixed off into the distance.

“Well...I did say third time was a charm” she smiled and finally looked down at him and met his gaze.

“So...if I get you out of this...no I shall rephrase that, when I get you out of this, what is my prize?” he was trying to keep things light as he continued to remove the sand that had encompassed her boot.

“Prize? What is it that you want?” she dropped her hands to her sides and looked down on his head, his hair sweaty from being out in the suns rays all day, it looked disheveled and not regulation cut she noted.

“For saving your life, I dunno....how about a kiss” he looked up then noting her eyes more than anything.

“Just a kiss?” she felt her mouth dry and her heart beat a little more rapidly then.

“Don't want to get greedy” he smiled before looking back down at his handiwork as he began to reveal the claymore in all its glory.

“Okay...deal” she said, what the hell, she had no idea what was going to happen next and even if she did live to tell the tale she had to admit that the man kneeling down in front of her made her smile on the inside amongst other things so she was more than happy to give him a kiss.

“Its gonna be okay, Alex, I got this okay” he replied then in a much softer voice than she had ever heard him use before.

She had her eyes closed though, part of her really wanted to look down and part of her wanted to shut the world out right there and then. She didn’t see him rise and come to a stop right before her face, didn’t see that look in his eyes as he poured over every single line of her face or the way she scrunched her eyes shut but she felt him breathing on her face. Her own breath hitched in the back of her throat as she slowly opened her eyes to see him staring back at her, his hand had been softly stroking her cheek, the sensation was altogether slightly electrifying as she felt a small tear slip slowly down her left cheek.

His finger had caught it instantly and time had slowed down once more much like it had when she had first seen him back on the parade ground. He had used her first name, it felt alien, foreign even but warming all at the same time, it felt right that he had called her by her first name and not her surname but hardly anyone called her Alex only her close family and now him. He cupped her face gently as if she were to break if he handled her any differently, it was reassuring as he simply stared at her for a few moments more.

“Ive got you” he told her then moved back down to her feet once more, his hand falling from her face, the warm imprint slowly fading from her skin as she closed her eyes once more.

Laying flat to the ground, James brushed away any remnants of debris and located the pin hole, it was of great relief that the hole had not been plugged, he had been so scared that the hole had been glued shut as he wasnt so sure he could fix that problem but he would never of given up on her. Looking across to his tool roll, he pulled a thin but circular metal rod, he knew how long it needed to be in order to fit the entire length of the safety and slowly began to push the metal rod into the small hole under her boot. 

She felt slightly unsteady, the heat and the sweat was taking its toll on her body and whilst a soft breeze blew through the open holes in the cement walls, it had taken quite a toll on her legs as she had tried to remain upright. She felt her face was wet, not with the tears as that had been just the single one, no, from the sweat that refused to stop emanating from her skin. She wavered slightly then, she felt her legs underneath desperately trying to keep locked tight in position, it was a battle that she was slowly losing.

He felt her shift slightly, not much but enough for him to see her ankle try and reposition itself, weight ever so slightly shifting and adjusting and whilst not enough to cause any problem to the pressure plate, enough to worry that she could quite possibly keel over just from exhaustion. He heard how she would blow out breath, fanning the fringe that fell across her forehead and his eyes were level where her hands drummed against her thighs idly trying to keep herself in check.

He moved up then into a kneeling position, his left hand came up and pressed itself against her right knee then, steadying her as she stopped her fingers instinctively knowing that he was trying to stop her from moving. She had mumbled an apology and he had smiled but before he could readjust himself back on the sandy floor she attentively moved her right hand out to rest on the top of his head as if steadying herself but he chose that moment to look back up at her.

“I know its hard, be over soon” he said as she nodded, her hand releasing him.

Fifteen minutes later he was back up off of his stomach and facing her again, she had now opened her eyes and was watching him intently as he held out his hands to her telling her to take his. She looked down at his outstretched hands beckoning her in, battered fingerless gloves covered what must of been rough and calloused hands from the harsh environment of the desert. Slowly but surely she reached out to him, didn’t have to reach far as he was close enough to capture them quickly, he felt the slight tremble of them as he felt her fingers slide over his

“Okay, a rolling motion, take a step first slowly with your left foot and follow with your right...trust me” he said as he made sure he had a tight hold of her hands.

“Okay” she nodded.

He wanted her to be the one to take the first step, he wasnt going to force the matter, she was too tired, too scared to be forced into that position and so he waited for her to move even if it took them all night standing there, he would wait. Riley swallowed hard, now or never she thought as she looked down to her legs, she had mentally said goodbye of ever seeing them again just in case everything went pear shaped and then she looked up at him. If she were to die then , his face as being the last thing to ever see was probably not such a bad thing in the grand scheme of things. 

Taking another deep breath, she allowed her left foot to move first before finally taking that huge risk and rolling off with her right expecting some big boom and not hearing one was pure joy. It was emotional, of course it was and who could blame her and James looked genuinely happy to see her smile even more so when she had let go of his hands and enveloped him into a hug, her thank you’s ringing over and over in his ears.

Resting her forehead against his, she allowed for her breathing to return to normal, she felt his hands on her hips holding her tightly in position as his own breath warmed her face. The outside was lost to the both of them as she flickered her eyes open and stared deep into his own pools, they mostly had the same colour eyes, something she hadn't noticed the times before that they had talked and eaten together. His hands reached up to her face and twisted the stray bits of hair around his fingers before allowing them to slip between the strands loving the feeling of it all.

“You okay?” he whispered his question as his hands moved down over the collar of her uniform jacket desperately wanting to feel the soft flesh it protected underneath but settling instead for him reaching down for her hands once more.

“Thank you” she whispered back, what more could she possibly say to the man who had saved her life, thank you seemed ineffective to her but to him, it was everything.

“You’re welcome” he smiled into his whisper, his head never leaving hers, they stayed that way a good five minutes in silence.

Her lips were almost touching his, she could feel when they moved against hers as he spoke, there was nothing like a very close call with death to make a person appreciative the little things in life. He had asked for a kiss, did he want it now or later she thought as she pondered what to do next and quite frankly she was more than happy to share that kiss in the here and now. She stroked her thumb over his lips mimicking something she had done a couple of days previously, she had remembered the effect it had on him when she had done that. 

“You okay in there boss, awfully quiet” Sanchez’s voice cut through the silence, he hadnt moved from his spot, he wasnt stupid but the locals were getting antsy.

“Be out in a few, almost got it” James replied.

Riley didn’t figure on waiting, she was alive at the end of the day, she could go back to that crap hole she called home and climb into her bunk safe in the knowledge that she would be waking up the next morning. She felt her lips touch his then, testing the waters so to speak as she felt his hands pull her in closer until she felt his hips against her own. The kiss was gentle to begin with, he didn’t need much coaxing as their lips connected and held her there, there was a steady building fire burning its way up as she felt his tongue dip into her mouth savouring the taste there. 

His kisses were like nectar as she found herself leaning more into him, her own hands sliding to the small of his back and his kiss intensified with each passing second. It was like being drunk, getting almost swept away as they both fell into one another, James had only wondered what this moment would feel like and here he was wishing he could do more but it was a start, a damn fine good one even if he had said so himself. He was the first to break the kiss, he didn’t want to, he wanted to remain lost in her for longer but they weren't exactly in a safe place and any moment now someone would probably show their head.

“So...man cave?” he smiled, there it was, that big smile of hers that had fallen for days before.

She nodded, he allowed her to move first around the mine made safe and around the corner where people were pooling towards them, he could hear the voices of the Marines as they welcomed her back into their fold, some making jokes whilst others silently congratulating her. Picking up his roll, he moved off after her and was greeted by Sanchez who patted him gingerly on the shoulder, a wink in his eye as he followed James back to the Humvee.


End file.
